"When government chooses to intimidate instead of negotiate in good faith, they should expect this kind of resistance. I’m not sure it's necessarily a good thing for citizens to threaten government officials, but the situation would never have gotten to this point if the government had treated its people as citizens instead of subjects to be bullied and pushed around."
So wrote blogger Rick Moran, after Bureau of Land Management officials ratcheted down their strong arm tactics against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy on Saturday, in a well-reasoned postscript on the incident.
He's right: rather than treat Mr. Bundy with the respect any human being deserves, federal officials swooped in with 200 heavily armed agents employing bully tactics — backed by "sovereign immunity".
But rather than back down, Mr. Bundy took a stand for what he believes to be right, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 protesters (Newsweek claims there were 1,000 at one point) — many of them also well armed — decided to resist the thuggery of the Feds, which was more about protecting a desert turtle and the solar power investments of a Chinese company with connections to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's son than Mr. Bundy's alleged violation of grazing laws.
Unlike conditions 20 years ago — when ATF agents, US Marshalls, and FBI snipers descended on the Randy Weaver family at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, killing his wife and 14-year-old son, or when ATF agents attacked and, 51 days later, FBI agents gassed and burned to death Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas — Americans today are much better organized and seem far less tolerant of such Gestapo tactics.
Given these circumstances, federal officials were wise to de-escalate the situation.
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